


Teasing Games

by Ranaspel



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Courtship, Elves, F/M, Flirting, Smut, Teasing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-09-03
Packaged: 2018-07-26 07:33:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7565572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ranaspel/pseuds/Ranaspel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Havae Lavellan and Solas have fallen hard for each other.  They both know there's a strong attraction, but as Solas says there are...Complications.  He inadvertently jogs Havae's memory, which results in her coming up with a plan for the right moment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

A game, or rather, a challenge Havae practiced all her life was to move with such silence, such stealth, that she could lay a hand on a Halla or Deer without the creature knowing she was there until the moment she touched it. To take such a wary animal in this way required one to be aware of how it thought, how it sensed the world around it; to use one’s surroundings to conceal oneself, and to flow with those surroundings so as to not raise any alarms. Havae was finding that her life pursuing elusive animals was serving her in good stead with her courtship of Solas. 

After their shared kisses in the Fade, the mage had turned coy. With some she would say that it was just a man who moved in haste, going further than he ever intended and never meant to overstep himself. Perhaps Solas had gone further than he thought he would, but she definitely did not get the impression that he regretted it. Sometimes when talking to the folk at Skyhold, she would feel eyes on her and would glance around only to spot him leaning against the wall and observing her with an ever so slight smile. Other times, when she was successful with catching him so involved with writing something or laying out a sketch, she could place a gloved hand on his forearm or shoulder and say his name and ask him a question or make some comment. There would be a moment of startlement, and then that same hunger she felt from him in the Fade would well up in him, barely suppressed. 

The thing that kept her from pushing it was the other emotion Solas gave off, and that was a great loneliness. It tore at her that he felt that way when surrounded by so many, but she also understood it since on one level she felt the same way. “Herald of Andraste” they called her, never mind that she was an Elf, and a Dalish one at that. Never mind the bad blood between the Human race and her own, never mind the systemic stomping out of the culture and religion of her people, she should just accept their adoration, their desperate plea for salvation from the tear in the sky and the monster that was Corypheus. “Herald” might not be the slur that “Apostate” was, but it was unwanted all the same.

So, she knew what solitude amongst many felt like, although she sensed for Solas it had been going on for far longer than she could guess. It made more sense to her when in one of their conversations he had mentioned that he was born in a village, and while that may mean he was not a city Elf it also meant he was not Dalish. She knew that some of the clans were outright vicious to outsiders, even those that shared their race. It saddened her that this intelligent and thoughtful man had been spurned so badly that it had left him bitter about her folk. 

To overwhelm him with emotion would not be all that difficult, with that aching need to connect to someone, she could likely seduce him in short order...And be shut out from his emotions for betraying him that way. After the Fade dream he had apologized to her, which kindled a momentary flame of anger. Impulsive? Ill considered? He seemed to have forgotten that she was the one who instigated it, and she was most definitely not backing away from what she started, not unless he told her he was not interested. She was about to let some heated words fly when she looked at him, _really_ looked at him. He was, what, nervous? “It has been a long time since I have done this.” Oh. OH. He was so good at flirting that she hadn’t thought...But of course, that sense of isolation he had about him, that wasn’t something that happened recently. How thoughtless of her, and not just in regards to Solas. Sometimes her predatory instincts were so strong that when she saw something she wanted she would focus on it to the exclusion of all else, and she could not afford to do that when so many relied on her. So she would give him the time he requested. No pressuring, but...Letting him know there’s options once the time was right. And so she played a teasing game with this man who fascinated her so, and attracted her like no other.

~~~

This is dangerous, and unfair to the both of us. His eyes tracked the svelte form of Havae as she ducked adroitly around some hangers-on and at the same time made another group of potential allies feel as if she had singled them out for a nod, a smile, a promise of further talk. It was astounding that a young woman could become so politically savvy in such a short time. Quite a bit of that was due to her ability to heed consul, not only from her advisors but from the rank and file, the “common” people. Perhaps that was why she engendered such trust in her allies, that uncanny way she locked those intense green eyes on you and _looked_ at you as an individual was flattering. Even to him, he could admit. Having her close to him was tantalizing, and gut-wrenching at the same time.

It was so easy to forget...The urge to fling everything to the wind and drown himself in the somehow cultured yet feral woman pulled at him whenever she was in sight. Or even when she wasn’t, he mused. Still, he had tried, first by trying to, well...Act the way he did with everyone else. That seemed to be enough to put off most people, but either he wasn’t as successful with that when he was with her, or he unknowingly gave himself away. Something inside of him voiced another alternative, that she was different, that she _was_. He tried to suppress that idea, but the turning point was when he dreamed them both in the Fade. He knew of course that she was attracted to him, she wasn’t the first woman who had shown interest. But how she took him by surprise! And in the Fade! He didn’t understand why he didn’t see it coming, when that smooth slide of gloved hand stroked across his jaw and jolted through him like lightning, then her breath and...He gazed at nothing and replayed it in his mind, her mouth hot on his, but not demanding, just...Offering. He had been so shocked that he had stood there like a dolt, feeling utterly blindsided. A sensation he was _not_ used to. 

Then she was drawing away from him and he was left bereft. Then those eyes, heated with lust and somewhat more, caught his, and the slight curve of her lips that hinted at such humor and understanding. He couldn’t. He couldn’t let her pull away from him, he couldn’t even though common sense told him this could only cause them trouble. Shaking his head both at his folly and the knowledge that he couldn’t let such a woman slide through his hands, he stepped close and showed her some of what he felt. If he prayed to gods he would have been singing their praises as she pressed up against him, molding perfectly to his body while they became immersed in each other. A part of him was amazed, she was not a mage yet she was interacting with him with a consciousness that a sleeper would never be able to attain. Most of him though wasn’t really thinking, he was feeling something more powerful and overwhelming than he had felt in ages. He _wanted_ her, to taste her on his mouth, to strip the clothing from her and rub his skin against hers, to her her voice cry out his name as-

“And just what are you thinking so deeply about, Solas?” He blinks as the woman he was just thinking such carnal thoughts about speaks his name in that slightly husky voice of hers. The thrum of it echoed a chord inside him in an involuntary response. Yet another thing about her that was slowly driving him to frustration. She couldn’t know what he had been thinking about, could she? 

“Trying to remember the rules for a board game I overheard someone mention.” Good thing he was a practiced liar. He shifted his body to make sure that his arousal wasn’t physically evident.

“Mmm. A game, is it?” Much to his relief her searing focus went vague as she thought about something. He nearly jumped when it sharpened again and this time was accompanied by a wicked smile that made his pulse leap. “That reminds me of something. I’ll have to show you some time.” A hand brushes his arm as she walks past him, footsteps nearly silent. He can’t help but watch her whip strong body move away from him and longed that things were different, and at the same time feared that they were.

~~~


	2. game change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter as Havae gets a clue as to what she's got.

~~~

Every now and again she wondered just how much control she actually had over their interactions, if he wasn’t the one that had far more experience in this game than she did. Well, that very well may be the case. After all, he looked to be at least a decade older than her, and so well travelled. Then there was the fade journeys, Were they like dreams non mages had, where days, months, even years could pass in a single night? It was a thought that was intriguing and discomfiting at the same time. Remembering some conversations both The Iron Bull and Blackwall had with Solas, they had given some interesting (and amusing) speculation on what he’s done (and who) while in the Fade. She shouldn’t be jealous of a dream, but there were spirits, and Solas had pointed out to her that they were actual beings. Had he...Given himself to any? The spirit of Wisdom that had been corrupted by those fool mages knew Solas, maybe intimately. His level of grief had torn at her, his rage had kindled her own. It didn’t matter if the spirit had been his lover, she decided. After all, that is just one facet of a bond that is shared, and the spirit and Solas obviously had held a deep bond over a long time. Jealousy wasn’t something she could feel for something like that, and it would be ill of her to be so when she held no claim to him in any case.

Well, perhaps not then, but now...When he had asked her to her balcony she could see he was agitated, almost flustered. Her curiosity burned the entire walk to her quarters, and when she faced him in the sunlight she could see she wasn’t wrong about his emotional state. He had dumped a bundle of questions in her hands, trying to sort out the why of them. She had answered him honestly, prickling a bit and instantly soothed by his responses. Finally she asked him what it all meant, and her heart squeezed when he said “It means I have not forgotten the kiss.” She had tried and failed to suppress the smile on her mobile lips as she had replied “Good.” And then like an idiot she had walked up to him and her face up, hands behind her back like some silly girl presenting herself for a suitor’s kiss. She nearly groans aloud at herself, for keeping her eyes lowered, her posture submissive, when what she wanted to do was roll over him like a cat in cat mint. She saw the movement of him stepping closer, head dipping down, and away from her. Without thinking her right hand rose and held onto his arm. “Don’t go.” She blurted. If he had left then, she would have kicked herself the entire way down the mountain in humiliation and anger at blundering so badly. What in Thedas made her _do_ that? It wasn’t even like her! Then his voice, thrumming through her.

“It would be kinder in the long run...But losing you would-” and his mouth was on hers again, a hot contrast to the cool air around them. They moved together, exploring how to hold the other, her arms seemed to ignore the commands she gave them in the sensations that flooded her body. Then the kiss ended and she reeled, breathing in deep as his voice wrapped around her like his body had moments before. “Ar lath, ma vhenan.” Legs suddenly weak, she leaned against the balcony door as she watched this man who held her heart walked into her room, suddenly awestruck at what she had gained. This was not a person who was like fire or wind, flaring up or gusting with emotion, quickly flitting from one to the next, nor was he like earth or water, slowly forming and unchanging, obvious to all. No, he was magic, following its own rules and deadly like no other. She was trembling, she realized, her heart filled with something she had never known before. Was it pain? Was this panic? Terror? All of these, she realized. It was love, not just lust, not just a game. He must have been feeling all of this before he had even asked her onto the balcony, and once admitting to it he had found peace. She, on the other hand, had played at understanding it and just now came face to face with it. With him. She had been pursuing him, and in turn was thoroughly captured. Solas was right, things _were_ easier in the Fade. 

He seemed to understand that she had needed time to process this, as his cool blue eyes found hers and warmed, closing the door to her room as he left her to her thoughts.

~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter, needed to get it out so I can get to the goods.

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter is pretty tame but it should get pretty steamy.


End file.
